At the Insurtech Insights Europe conference, we spoke with Dani Katz and Greg Gwilliam from Optalitix about how cloud infrastructure and modern pricing platforms are transforming underwriting and actuarial workflows. The discussion focused on how falling storage and compute costs are enabling insurers to process larger volumes of data, run more sophisticated models, and introduce advanced analytics directly into pricing and underwriting decisions. What was once limited by expensive infrastructure or spreadsheet-based processes is now becoming far more scalable and accessible through cloud-native platforms.

A major theme throughout the conversation was the growing importance of data strategy. Dani and Greg highlighted that while insurers now have access to vast amounts of external data, many organisations are still underutilising the data they already hold internally. They discussed the value of capturing and connecting data across the full insurance lifecycle -from quote and bind through to claims – before enhancing it with third-party datasets. The conversation also explored how underwriters are increasingly being augmented by actuarial insight, machine learning, and AI-driven analytics, allowing them to make faster and more informed risk decisions without replacing human judgement.

The discussion also touched on the operational challenges of modernisation, particularly around change management and adoption within underwriting teams. Dani and Greg explained that successful transformation depends on creating tools and processes that genuinely improve the day-to-day experience for underwriters and actuaries, rather than simply increasing efficiency targets. They also shared how Optalitix is supporting insurers and reinsurers in the group life market by consolidating fragmented spreadsheet-based workflows into unified cloud systems, enabling more streamlined pricing, referrals, and large-scale policy analysis across complex insurance operations.